Tag Archive | "Elections"

So, who’s been watching the Election this month? I know we all now know who’s won, but there’s nothing wrong with a general run down of what happened in the tension full vote grabbing competition.
Generally I found that most of the people I spoke to supported Obama – and I’m not sure if this is just because us Brits are terrified of change, terrified of the idea of Mitt Romney in charge of one of the biggest countries in the world, or simply because we worry about the economy. Romney simply didn’t seem to come up front in what he was advertising to us Brits – not that it matters to him, we can’t vote. But why was it then that a good proportion of Americans voted for him? I think that (and please note, my opinion is about as educated in American politics as yours) a good number of the people who for the republicans this time round did so because they have last time, and the time before that, and so on. The majority of people who voted for Obama were 18-24, and the majority that voted for Romney was 65+ (Sourced from Thursday the 8th of November’s Metro). I reckon this shows that the older generation are simply trying to hold on to that last century. But like I say, take anything I say with a pinch of salt.
52% of women voted for the Republicans, while only 45% voted for the Democrats; Men on the other hand voted 55% for Obama and 44% for our dear friend Mitt. This is pretty much split down the middle, as expected. Generally, house owners who earned less money voted for the Democrats, and voters who earned more polled in for the Republicans. The most staggering statistic is the votes of races by percentage – only 6% of Blacks, 27% of Hispanic and 28% of Asian voted for Romney. The republicans however pulled in their vote with the American whites, persuading 59% of them to go their way, and this being the majority population, it evened out and turned into one of the best Electoral campaigns we’ve seen in a long time, from both of the parties.
The question we are all wondering now is, will president Obama live up to his promise of moving America forward? He certainly took the nation one step against racism in 2008 when he was elected as the first black president of the United States – definitely a step in the right direction. Being part of the democratic party and being elected twice in a row is also a massive achievement – only four US Democratic presidents have ever been selected to lead their country twice in a row, meaning his name is up there with Roosevelt, Wilson, and Clinton; but then to say that he did it in economic hardship, with more than 8% unemployment (something that has not been done since 1940) makes him seem even more like ‘the man’ for the job. It’s impossible to say whether or not he will sort out the trouble that America is in right now, but I would bet you my small amount of savings that no president could clean up the mess left by the global financial crisis in just one term. Hopefully President Obama will sort it out on his second.
By Harry Loker